Little Bird's Vengeance Chapter 61 Heart-Break
Tim hugged his knees, cold and alone, face wet and salty from icy sea spray and hot tears. Gotham wasn't there. Instead of a large island filled with the city and sprawling out onto the mainland, there was a modest coastal settlement and some rocky outcrops in the ocean - like the one he was sitting on.
He wanted to go home. He wanted to stumble into the cave as though it was any other night with dawn approaching, strip off his suit and shower away the sweat. Retreat to his bedroom, knowing Bruce was just down the corridor, Dick was just a call away, that he could have any number of friends and allies and mentors if he needed them.
Instead of being stranded, a team of allies he could hardly relate to, a few independents he could work with, a shadowy organisation to report to, his best friends starting to lose their faith in him (because he could tell when they thought he was losing his grip), and a semi-insane, mostly psychotic, very homicidal vigilante to keep safe. And apparently the one person he trusted above all others was orchestrating everything that was going wrong.
His breath hitched. He ached all over from forcing his flight path as far south as possible, and his mind was worn thin from trying to navigate via the approximate shape of the coastline. His heart felt ripped in two.
The tears were coming thick and fast. It was all too much.
Jason guided the Quinjet down. It was shockingly fast, getting him to the east side of Africa in only two hours. The coordinates he'd entered were burned into his memory. The site of a certain Kenyan warehouse.
The building still stood here, somewhat weathered and battered, but resolutely not blown up. It hadn't been the site of a brutal murder by a psychotic clown. It was...strangely innocent.
Jason knew full well his mind was twisted. He just couldn't untwist it, separate the strands of truth from misconception. When he came back, his last thoughts before the darkness and the first ones after had become a mixed up mess. He'd felt sad that he was leaving Bruce, and furious at Joker, and when he came back it was agony, and he'd thought, 'Joker better be dead for putting me through this.' And he wasn't, and that mixed up with the guilt towards Bruce he'd felt, and his mind was warped, and it all became a horrible mess he couldn't sort out. But he knew, with every fibre of his being, that Bruce would always, always, always do what he believed was right. He wouldn't always pick the best course of action, but he was incapable of intentionally inflicting pain on good people. (Accidentally, he managed it all the time.)
Bruce wouldn't, couldn't, orchestrate hits, or set mechanical monstrosities on people, or bribe cops, or set up a hate group. He just...wouldn't. It had to be a joke.
But Kon swore on Thomas and Martha Wayne's grave...
"Care to explain what that was all about?"
Cassie wilted under Fury's disapproving glare. Bart had zipped off to the Cosmic Treadmill to plant the blueprints and make sure the Avengers made it to the Helicarrier. This would have been difficult enough with Tim to explain everything.
"The hit on Tony, the three suit-stroke-drone attacks, the police raid on Stark Tower and the Sons of the Serpent were all orchestrated by one person," she started. "We have the names of two criminal underworld recruiters who have been acting of intermediaries, we have two dozen members of Sons of the Serpent, and we have visuals of the ringleader."
Cassie slapped the picture on the table. Tony pulled it towards him.
"This the guy?" he asked. "SHIELD can do search thing for him, can't they?"
"Already in progress," Fury said. "Why did Red Robin and Red Hood have such an extreme reaction?"
"Because he looks identical to someone back home who they trust completely and utterly," Cassie said flatly. "When Hood's thinking rationally, at least."
"That's gotta hurt," Steve murmured.
"Yeah, so we're going to have to find Rob and calm him down enough to find Hood and calm him down," Cassie explained wearily.
"The locator on the Quinjet Hood took is still active," Fury told her. "He's in Kenya."
The two remaining Titans groaned. "This just gets better and better," Kon grumbled.
"Why Kenya?" Romanoff asked suspiciously.
Cassie looked at Kon. This was dangerously close to other-people's-secrets territory. "Let's just say that last time he was there, he had a...traumatic experience," Cassie winced.
Fury nodded. "He told me about that he."
Cassie stared at him. "I'd ask how you managed that, but I'm not sure I want to hear the answer."
"I have someone who might get through to him," Fury offered. "You deal with Red Robin."
"We can do that," Cassie nodded. She doubted Fury had anyone Jason would listen to, but with Tim AWOL there weren't many options. "Tony, we copied Ivan Vanko's original designs and notes, so could you look over them to see if there's any weaknesses we can exploit?"
"Well, I am kind of busy these days," Tony protested obstinately.
Cassie had learned leadership from Tim, whose main fault was that he didn't know how to take things easy. She smiled tightly. "Fair enough. You were our first choice, but I guess SHIELD's tech department can do nearly as well."
"Wait, ARC technology is the intellectual property of Stark Industries," Tony objected. "You can't just hand it over-"
"So you'll do it?" Cassie interrupted.
Tony grumbled. "Your attempts at manipulation are ham-fisted."
"I just want this all sorted out," Cassie snapped. "Can we play some other time?"
"What's got you so uptight?" Tony snarked.
"Stark, has it occurred to you yet that if Rob trusts someone, we tend to trust them too?" Kon interjected. "And if someone successfully betrays a Bat, it tends to be disastrous for all of us. We're all on edge now, okay?"
"Is it really that bad?" Steve asked before Tony could make another unhelpful comment.
"It's worse," Cassie admitted. Her comm crackled. "Bart?"
"Cassie, it's Rob," Bart replied.
"You've found him?" Cassie asked.
"Yeah. He's, uh, about half a mile off the coast roughly where Gotham ought to be."
Cassie paused. "He's where?"
Bart sighed. "Just follow the East Coast south until you find us. He hasn't seen me yet. Shall I wait for you?"
"Yes, you do that," Cassie decided. "We'll be with you shortly."
"We can handle things here," Fury reassured her. "You can go."
"Thanks," Cassie murmured. She nodded to the Avengers, and headed for the door, Kon beside her.
When they got outside, they took flight and sped up. The Helicarrier wasn't too far from the coast, and they went due west until they reached land before heading south. Then it wasn't long before they saw Bart standing on the beach, and the hunched red and black form on a rock.
Cassie landed next to him. "Tim?" she said gently. "Tim, are you...no, I know you're not okay, but could you look at me?"
Tim raised his head. He'd removed his mask, and his eyes were red-rimmed, puffy, and still streaming tears. "Please tell me this is all some big practical joke," he begged. "You're getting back at me for constantly shutting you out or something."
Kon caught up, depositing Bart on a smaller rock two feet away and staying in the air with Cassie. "Look, buddy, we can't promise it's not a trick of some sort," he said. "But we're not the ones doing the tricking. We swear, that picture really is what we found."
"But it's just not possible," Tim insisted. "It can't be him."
"It's definitely not our Bruce," Cassie said pragmatically. "The earliest picture we have is before we three crossed over, and Bruce was still around then." She paused. "Unless he was playing with time travel too..."
Tim glared. "Stop joking around," he complained.
"We really don't know what's going on, but if this world's Bruce is evil, we need you," Cassie pleaded. "And if someone's tricking us, you're the one with the best chance of working it out."
"You're really...not..." Tim stuttered.
"We'd never do that to you," Kon promised. "Someone might, but not us. No matter what you did."
"I don't know if I can do this," Tim admitted. "I just want to go home."
"I know, and I know it's hard for you, but we just have to get through this. You've been pushing yourself too hard, and you need to rest. So let's go back to New York, and you can take the rest of the day off, and you've probably given yourself a cold again, and when you're better we'll work out what's going on, and when we find the sick creep who thought they could get away with this, and make them rue the day they crossed us. Sound good?"
"Ah, moving would definitely be good," Bart said. "I think the coast guard has spotted us."
Tim tried to re-stick his mask, but his face was too wet. "Let's move, then," he said. He wrapped his arms around Cassie, and buried his face in her hair to hide it. Relieved, Cassie took flight, Kon and Bart behind her.
Jason watched the sky sullenly. What with the time difference, it was sunset, and sky was stained blood red. He curled up in the pilot's seat, feeling completely and utterly lost.
There was a knock on the Quinjet's side. Jason started, hesitated, then hit the button to lower the ramp. He rose, and drew his handguns, just it case.
There was a man in a suit waiting for him. He could be the very description of 'non-descript', from his graying hair receding across his scalp to the total uninteresting suit.
"Red Hood?" he asked. "Director Fury asked me to speak to you. I'm Agent Coulson."
AN: Can't be bothered with somethimg clever. See previous chapter. Katara.